by Morgan Cole
Without waiting for my permission—he knew better—a swarm of black robotic spiders flowed into the room. They disappeared into the stacks of boxes, climbing over, under, and behind them. A moment later, the inventory was complete.
"It is a fairly comprehensive collection of spare parts for nearly every system in this base. Obviously, the individual responsible for this base intended it to be able to operate independently of Union support for quite some time. If it weren't for the fact that no Union citizen was present to make repairs, the plan would've been a good one."
"Wow, that's great. I guess now that the base is running again, we could use some of these parts to beef up the Redemption."
"Yes, you certainly could. Some of the spares for the orbital and ground-based defense turrets would make suitable upgrades to the Redemption, assuming we also upgraded its power generation at the same time."
"Awesome," I said, my mind already racing. Despite the fact that Marty was our pilot, I was beginning to think of Redemption as my ship. I was the captain, after all. Wasn't I?
"There is something in here that is noteworthy, in addition. There is a complete set of parts for a standard gate."
"Whoa, what? A gate?" I asked, caught unprepared.
"Yes," Brick replied simply.
I thought about that. Gates were expensive. They required a lot of high tier exotics and radioactives. The very things that we were shortest on. If there was an entire set of gate parts here, that was a big win.
"I've got a great idea, Brick.”
Chapter Forty-Two: Time to Spend it All
SOMETIME LATER, I WAS in the hangar standing near the Redemption with a big, dumb grin on my face. A virtual river of black spiderbots flowed in and out of the ship, entering with parts and returning without. It hadn't been that long since the last part had disappeared inside.
Marty entered the hangar as I was standing there and quickly saw what was happening. "Hey, what's going on here? You started the modifications without me?"
"Yes, I did. Come and see," I said.
Marty and I walked up the ramp, the bots skittering out of our way as they flowed out of the Redemption. Marty cursed and laughed as he saw it.
"Holy shit, you installed a gate in the Redemption? That's awesome man."
At the back of our tiny excuse for a cargo hold, mounted on the wall, was the gate that less than an hour before had been hidden in that storage room packed in Union cubes. Now it was there, waiting for us. Standing on the ramp we could see it clearly. The cabin of the Redemption just wasn't that big.
"Yeah. Turns out there was a hidden room full of spare parts. That, and a complete gate sitting in boxes ready to go. I thought, where else would we put it but in this ship?"
"Great, but does it work? Do we have the power?"
"You're the pilot; try it out," I said and waved him forward.
"Marty, I have given you unique keys for the gate here on Mercury and the gate on Pax and Hephaseta 2. They are specific to this ship's gate. If the ship is ever lost I will revoke the codes to maintain security," Brick said.
Marty nodded absently, his hands already manipulating the gate control panel in front of him.
"Damn, here it is."
He punched an invisible button and with a flicker and snap the gate opened, showing the gate room on Hephaseta 2. I recognized the dirty floors and scuffed walls immediately.
"Remember that the Redemption only has the power needed to initiate a gate connection, and not enough to sustain it. Your destination must supply the power to maintain the connection after initiation."
I nodded, already understanding that. One of the reasons I originally hadn't been able to open the gate back to Earth after I first arrived on Pax was that even if I had the energy from my limited power to initiate the connection, the receiving end wouldn't be able to sustain it. That energy had to come from the fusion reactor on Pax.
With a flick of his hand, Marty closed the gate.
"That is gonna be really handy, I'm sure. At the very least, we can use it as an escape hatch, if it ever comes to that," I said.
"Hey, don't say that. It's bad luck," Marty protested.
"Jake, I've completed salvage of the power harvesting unit. Here is the list of materials salvaged and our current budget."
Two Interface windows popped up.
╠═╦╬╧╪
Resources in Station Storage
Nanite Clusters: 59898
Metals (Tier 1): 611.0kg
Metals (Tier 2): 321.0kg
Metals (Tier 3): 12.5kg
Organics (Tier 1): 62.1kg
Organics (Tier 2): 200.3kg
Organics (Tier 3): 912g
Exotics (Tier 1): 22.4kg
Exotics (Tier 2): 2.6kg (+2.0kg)
Exotics (Tier 3): 144g (+117g)
Radioactives (Tier 1): 26.1kg
Radioactives (Tier 2): 2.2kg
Radioactives (Tier 3): 23g (+15g)
╠═╦╬╧╪
"I'd say that was worth it, don't you?" I asked Marty.
Marty had the same window up in front of him and nodded as he looked at the totals.
"I've been thinking, Jake. I've got something that we should add. It's not very expensive, as far as the critical resources go. You know how you were asking for a tractor beam? That's not actually a thing in the Union, but there's something close. Let me show you."
He brought up a schematic and shared it with me. It wasn't obvious what it did, except add another blister on the hull of Redemption. It was a complex mass of Union components, and even with the schematic I couldn't make any sense of it. The blueprint he was showing me had nothing explaining what it did. I made a mental note to add comments to my blueprints in the future.
"What does this do? And where did you get this design?" I asked.
"Metra helped, but this is my design. Honestly, it was mostly Metra. It was my idea. Without her, I would've still been staring at a mostly blank page, so to speak."
"Great. Again, what does it do?" I asked.
"Oh, shit. Yeah, it's a tractor beam—kind of. It uses something similar to the tech that the gravity plates use to project a sphere of null gravity. It's kind of energy hungry, but it's not too bad. With this, we could have projected a sphere around the Potato and moved it around in relation to us quite easily. I'm not explaining it well. I only have a vague idea of the theory, but it'll do it. We can push, pull, and keep an object's position in relation to ours while we move. Tractor beam!"
"Really? So what's the range?" I asked.
"Oh, that is low. A kilometer at most."
That didn't seem low, to my human brain, but then I remembered space. Really big. One kilometer was basically nothing in space. Still, if our alternative was landing on the rock and clamping ourselves to it or this? Total no brainer, this was the winner.
"That's great. Let's add that to the list."
For the next several hours, Marty and I looked through all of our options and went back and forth on them. We brought up the Redemption's blueprint on a screen in front of us, adding and removing components as we tried to min-max our upgrade path.
The ship was already quite maneuverable and fast, so neither of us felt much of a need to upgrade there. We both agreed she needed better offense and defense. We were going to start a fight with a planet full of Ferals, after all.
The forward particle beam turret got removed and a much larger belly-mounted plasma turret was put in place. The same kind of turret that had given me so much trouble in the rift was now mounted on the bottom of the Redemption. It was a slightly smaller version without the enormous shell. Most of that shell had been hiding the power generation and capacitors.
We then put our particle beam turret back, mounting it under the stubby left wing. Another went under the right wing. I still itched to upgrade that design but I knew that would take longer than we currently had. Pluto wasn't going to clear itself and the clock was ticking.
Next were defensive
upgrades. We could have finally added the point defense but it didn't seem likely we'd need it clearing out Ferals. They weren't likely to fire missiles at us, after all. We quickly settled on adding a defensive shield. The unit we installed was one taken from the collection of spares and adapted to use in the Redemption. It would stop energy weapon fire and even kinetic weapons up to a certain point.
Finally, all of our new additions had added a ton of power demand. A quick glance at the Redemption's status told us that.
╠═╦╬╧╪
Redemption
Hull Integrity: Nominal
2xLight particle beam turret/p>
1xPlasma turret
Defense Systems
Basic combat shielding
Other Systems
Mitrasa Deluxe Scoutship Stealth Package
Scout sensor package
Gate
Energy
Internal Generation: 200 PU/s
Internal Storage: 10000/10000 PU
Energy Consumption:
Weaponry: 0/1200 PU/s
Shields: 0/80 PU/s
Propulsion: 0/50 PU/s
Other: 0/25 PU/s
╠═╦╬╧╪
The energy budget wasn't looking great. With that kind of power demand there was no way our little scout would be doing much fighting.
We squeezed three more Zeropoint power generators into the cargo bay—mounted on the ceiling—and things started to look a lot better. Our power generation went up to where we could actually run all of our systems at the same time, and the generators' integrated energy storage greatly increased the amount of time we could do that with the weapons firing.
The plasma cannon was a real hog. Even with the extra generators and storage, Marty would have to be careful not to run the Redemption's energy storage dry.
Once everything was where we wanted it, we started the process. The Manufactors back on Pax started up, building the bits we couldn't steal from the Connahr base's spares.
For the next eight hours roughly half of Brick's spider army transported parts on a black river of legs through the gate from Pax or out of the spares locker and into our hanger to be installed. Installation was a lot easier than you might think. Usually it was just a matter of making sure the part was in the right place and then using a melder to attach it. The control and power runs happened almost automatically in the same way Excalibur could be powered and controlled while held in my armored hand.
Metra complained about us stealing some of her bots, but after she came through the gate and saw the plans her complaints stopped.
"Okay, you're right. Your little stunt was worth it. It's starting to look like a serious warship now," she allowed.
"Yes, she is. Aren't you, my little beauty?" Marty said and gave the blunt snout of Redemption a gentle pat.
Metra just rolled her eyes at him.
"As soon as we're done here we're going to go and try to clean out Pluto. Or at least scout it properly," I said.
"There's one thing you have both forgotten," Metra said. "If you're going to go clean out a Feral infestation, where are you going to store the Nanites? We've got a decent amount left but you never really have enough. I can tell you that for sure. Once Pax's satellite stations get producing again we will run out of Nanites very quickly. We need to start farming them again, either on Hephaseta or somewhere else. That is, if you still want to go ahead with this plan where we defend an entire solar system all by ourselves."
She was right, of course. She usually was. Not always, but most of the time. I had my own Nanite storage in the suit, but it would only hold 500. That and the small amount of storage in my body wouldn't be enough if we were trying to clear an entire planet.
"Good point. I guess we need to add a couple containers in the cargo hold," I replied.
"I'm thinking two big ones. That, and a Cluster harvester. They're really cheap, and if you don't have one you'll have to carry the Nanites into the containers manually. With a harvester they will flow directly into the containers."
"Is that in our budget?" I asked. We had stretched it quite thin at the end.
"They're not expensive, and I've already given the order for Brick to detach two containers from my hauler and bring them through the gate. The harvester itself is in a Manufactor right now."
"Right on, thanks Met," Marty said and gave her a high five. She took it with one of her larger upper arms, grinning back.
"Met?" I asked, raising an eyebrow at Marty.
"What?" he asked, mock affronted.
"Never mind. How long is the harvester going to take?" I asked.
"It's just about done now. It's a pretty simple device. The Nanites will travel along the conduits already in the Redemption. You just have to mount the harvester.”
Minutes later two containers that looked like space-age coffins came through the gate. They were long and flat with rounded surfaces like a stainless-steel lozenge. Spider bots carried them up the ramp and installed them on either side of the gate, vertically mounted on the walls.
The harvester came through soon after, a blister roughly half the size of a basketball. Metra plucked the harvester away from the bots carrying it and mounted it on the nose of the ship right beside where the hatch would open and close. It took her less than a minute to place and meld the blister to the hull.
I brought up the ship status sheet to check the changes.
╠═╦╬╧╪
Redemption
Hull Integrity: Nominal
2xLight particle beam turret/p>
1xPlasma turret
Defense Systems:
Basic combat shielding
Other Systems:
Mitrasa Deluxe Scoutship Stealth Package
Scout sensor package
Gate
2xNanite Cluster Storage Canisters
Nanite Harvesting Unit
Energy
Internal Generation: 800 PU/s
Internal Storage: 40000/40000 PU
Energy Consumption:
Weaponry: 0/1200 PU/s
Shields: 0/80 PU/s
Propulsion: 0/50 PU/s
Other: 0/145 PU/s
╠═╦╬╧╪
"How does it work?" Marty asked.
"Just turn it on and it will pull in every unclaimed Nanite Cluster within two hundred meters, nice and fast."
"That's awesome. Will it extract them from dead Ferals as well?" I asked.
"Yes. It wouldn't be much good if it didn't. It doesn't take a lot of power, so when you're clearing a battlefield you can just keep it on."
"You make it sound like this is a standard feature?" I said.
"Of course it is."
I turned to Marty. There was one last thing both of us needed to do before we went.
"Marty, I hate to delay our departure any more than we have to, but I think you should get yourself to the next tier of Transcendent Flesh and max out your stats before we go. We're going to need you at the top of your game."
"Hey, I'm not going to argue with that. I guess we can afford it now."
"I'm going to do some stat upgrades as well. I've got more than you already, but you'll catch up soon. I don't want to be one of those dummies that doesn't spend all his stat points before the boss battle because he might need them later."
Marty laughed. "No doubt."
We both returned to Pax and made our way to our separate quarters: mine in Mattias' living quarters in the Hab complex, and Marty to the quarters Metra had built for him off one of the Connector nodes. I settled back in the office chair, which was the one remaining piece of furniture that was fully intact. My armor stood nearby, back open and waiting for me to return.
This upgrade had been planned for a while, saved in the depths of my Interface. Until now I hadn't dared spend any of our precious exotics on stat upgrades I didn't really need. I brought up the summary in front of me.
╠═╦╬╧╪
Queued Upgrades
Transce
ndent Flesh +1 to 3/5
Strength +10 to 30/30
Coordination +15 to 30/30
Endurance +16 to 30/30
Acuity +10 to 30/30
Intuition +10 to 30/30
Perception +10 to 30/30
Costs:
568 Nanite Clusters
8.35kg Metals (Tier 2)
41.15kg Organics (Tier 2)
4.25kg Exotics (Tier 1)
╠═╦╬╧╪
"Materials are on their way, Jake," Brick said, anticipating my need.
"Thanks, Brick."
In my lap was a container filled with the Nanites I needed for the upgrade, withdrawn from the Pax storage arrays. Spider bots crawled up my legs, each carrying a portion of the materials my upgrade required. Each would drop it in my lap and leap off before the next one came in.
"I've got to buy some furniture and get this place livable again. This would be so much easier with a bed. I wonder what would happen if we put Redemption down in the parking lot of some big box furniture store and me and Marty started shoving furniture through the gate."
I chuckled to myself.
"Isn't there some better way the Union does this, Brick?"
"There is. It is a pod that has material and Nanite Cluster conduits. The Interface draws from it as needed rather than having to stockpile the materials ahead of time."
"Remind me to build some of those before we do this again."
The image of us Inducting and upgrading a lot of new people using our current methods had me chuckling again. Not everyone would be so open to robotic spiders crawling on them, delivering the needed materials.
"Noted," Brick replied.
Finally the materials were all there, an unsteady pile of ingots in my lap. I triggered the upgrade and lost consciousness soon after.
Chapter Forty-Three: On our Way to Pluto
MY EYES SNAPPED OPEN. I felt slightly odd and stood up. The empty, forgotten Nanite Cluster container on my lap fell and I snatched it out of the air. Stretching, I tried to determine what the odd feeling was, but before I could pinpoint a cause, the feeling fled.
I pulled up my status sheet.
╠═╦╬╧╪
Jake, Humanity-branch
Transcendent Flesh Level 3